1. Han Solo Was Meant To Die In Return Of The Jedi - Star Wars
It's been thirty-two years since Han Solo last graced the big screen in Return Of The Jedi, but now we're less than a month away from seeing that scruffy looking nerf herder again. While it'll be great to see an elderly Han and Chewie bro-ing it up like old times, things could have wound up very differently - the character wasn't originally meant to survive past Episode VI. During the pre-production process, Jedi was considerably different to what eventually became the final product. Some of the initial ideas that were thrown around included having Wookies instead of Ewoks (which would've been awesome), Yoda being omitted completely, Obi Wan somehow coming back to life, and most importantly, Han dying in a blaze of glory whilst fighting against the Empire. Co-writer Lawrence Kasdan was keen to see Han die and Harrison Ford was unsure whether or not he was going to return to the franchise at all, hence Han's carbonite ending in Empire. George Lucas even toyed with the idea of killing Han off for a bit before deciding against it (with some resistance from Kasdan and Ford) and declaring that no principal characters should die whilst he was still in charge. Now it may have been creatively motivated, but the fact that Han Solo toys were still flying off the shelves may have also played a part in Lucas' decision to not have Han go the way of poor Greedo. Which other famous characters almost met an untimely end? Share any more near-death experiences in the comments.
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